


Eavesdropping

by Emirael



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Childhood, Cute, Fluff, Gen, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-10
Updated: 2014-02-10
Packaged: 2018-01-11 12:31:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1173105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emirael/pseuds/Emirael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Desperate to hear Elsa’s voice, Anna begins to eavesdrop through her sister’s door. One-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eavesdropping

At first, when Anna called to Elsa through her door, her sister would tell her to go away. Sometimes, Anna would talk to Elsa and try to call her out of her room even though she knew that Elsa wouldn’t come because hearing her voice was enough. Even if it was just, “Go away, Anna,” or “Leave me alone, Anna,” that would satisfy her enough for a whole day. Hearing her sister say her name would trigger all their best memories together. Anna would lie down in the middle of the ballroom and imagine it was one of the snowy hillsides by the castle where she and Elsa used to play.

At some point, however, Elsa stopped answering entirely, even when Anna resorted to singing songs she knew her sister hated or knocking on the door incessantly. If she stayed there long enough, her parents would pull her away at first. When she grew to be too much of a hassle for them to deal with, they assigned servants the task of relocating the young princess, should she be caught trying to heckle a response out of Elsa.

That’s when Anna started eavesdropping.

After two weeks of foregoing her annoy-Elsa-until-she-replies strategy, the servants stopped patrolling the corridor by Elsa’s room and then Anna could listen. At first she only listened whenever her parents were safely away on kingdom duties and unlikely to catch her. To her disappointment, however, Elsa was not in the habit of talking to herself while alone in her room. The few snippets she did catch usually involved her sister being frustrated about… something, and were generally confusing.

“Wait, no!”

“So stupid, Elsa!”

“Damn, I was doing so well…”

Hearing Elsa curse quietly was a secret thrill, but also concerning. Anna didn’t understand what kept frustrating her, and she couldn’t ask her parents about it, or they would know about her listening to Elsa behind her door. Despite her sister’s distress, she was happy enough just to be hearing her voice.

There was just one phrase she heard Elsa repeat to herself more than any other, and though she didn’t know what it meant to her sister or why she repeated it, Anna found herself hating it.

“Conceal it, don’t feel it,” Elsa would mutter as she paced around the room, footsteps sounding closer, then farther in a steady tempo. “Don’t let it show.”

Some nights, when she snuck out of bed just to listen in on her sister for a little bit, she’d hear Elsa murmur in her sleep. “Conceal… dunfeel…”

As she got older, Anna began to become more bold in her eavesdropping, and what she heard confused and alarmed her further. She noticed her parents seemed to visit Elsa’s room on a relatively stable schedule and, desperate to understand more, she started listening to their visits. She grew attuned to the pattern of steps they took before they left the room so she could slide down the hall and around the corner before they opened the door.

What she heard answered none of her questions.

“I’m scared!” Elsa said. “It’s getting stronger.”

Anna heard her father step closer to Elsa. “Getting upset only makes it worse,” he said soothingly.

“No, don’t touch me!” Elsa cried out. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

It upset her every time she heard her sister sound so scared and fearful of rejection, afraid of hurting those around her, but it was better than nothing. And, Anna told herself, it meant she would be that much more prepared. When her sister finally opened the door (because it broke her heart to imagine a world where it never opened) and let her into her life, she would be ready to accept her and support her. She knew Elsa would never hurt her because she knew that was her sister’s greatest fear.

“The curse… I can’t control it!”

“It’s not a curse, Elsa.” Their mother’s voice was so calming. “Remember what we said in the woods? You were born this way.”

When Elsa finally let her in, Anna would be prepared. Whatever Elsa thought was wrong with her, Anna would be ready to accept. It wouldn’t matter what it was.

“I’m a monster…”

Anna would always love her.

*

The duke sputtered about as snowflakes began to fall. “Look! It’s snowing! The queen has cursed this land! She must be stopped!” He turned to his two men-at-arms. “You have to go after her.”

Anna rushed over. “Wait, no!”

Her former dance partner hid behind his men in alarm and pointed at her accusatorily.

“You!” He screeched. “Is there sorcery in you too? Are you a monster, too?”

Anna shook her head resolutely. “No,” she said. “No, I’m completely ordinary.” Because Elsa wasn’t a monster, and wasn’t cursed. She was extraordinary.


End file.
